


In Which Qrow Propositions James

by pidgeonpostal



Series: The Heartless AU [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Biting, Bottom Qrow Branwen, Casual Sex, Consenting While Drinking, M/M, Porn with Feelings, The timing of this fic publishing is very bad and I’m sorry, Top James Ironwood, but it doesn't really come up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:01:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29730813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pidgeonpostal/pseuds/pidgeonpostal
Summary: “Just saying, Jimmy, you really need to let loose once in a while.”Qrow respects James, that's all. That's why he yells at James all day in Ozpin's meetings, and why he decides that the best way for James to unwind at the end of the day is to offer to let James rail him.In Heartless it is established that Qrow and James used to have an...arrangement. This is that arrangement. Set more or less in V3, or the equivalent of V3 in this AU.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/James Ironwood
Series: The Heartless AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185065
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	In Which Qrow Propositions James

**Author's Note:**

> If you've read [Heartless,](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29136072/chapters/71528217) this is happening before James returns to Atlas for good and rips his heart out. If you haven't read Heartless and are just here for the smut, that’s cool too, you don’t need to have read Heartless.
> 
> This is very much a V3 Qrow, who is more or less constantly drinking. He's been drinking here, but has been planning this for a while and is able to consent. Still, the Consenting While Drinking tag is there, if that's something that isn't your thing I fully respect that.

“Just saying, Jimmy, you really need to let loose once in a while.”

It was a bad idea. It was a monumentally stupid idea, but damn if Qrow wasn’t going to do it anyway because first of all, he really wanted to, and second of all, it was true. James needed somewhere to put all this tension and by the gods, Qrow was going to be that somewhere.

James sighed one of his long-suffering sighs. Qrow knew them well. “The situation in Atlas is precarious at best. ‘Letting loose’ would not help.”

Qrow gestured with his glass at the wine cellar they were in. He’d come down here for another drink, and instead he’d found James having a quiet moment that was doing absolutely fuckall for him, in Qrow’s opinion. “Just saying. You’ve got evenings where you’re not being all ‘diplomatic,’” Qrow waved his hands for emphasis. His drink sloshed over the rim onto his hand. “You could use some of ‘em. Get  _ acquainted, _ you know? Go back to council meetings the next day a little less…tense.”

James arched an eyebrow, the one with a second, metallic eyebrow over it. Heh. Double the disapproving look. Or was it only one and a half? “I’m the general of Atlas’ army, Qrow. I can’t just wander out to a bar in Vale looking for…stress relief.”

Stress relief. So that’s what they called it in Atlas. But at least he seemed to be getting the idea. “You don’t have to even leave the room, pal.”

James stared at him, first uncomprehending, then unbelieving, then…calculating. Weighing the options. Qrow had already given his best logical argument, so he settled for looking James dead in the eye while licking some of his spilled drink off his hand. Nothing goes to waste in a proper seduction, Qrow always said. Well, if this worked he’d start saying it, at least.

James seemed to come to a decision and cleared his throat. “It…would certainly make things easier.”

“You know me, Jimmy,” Qrow said as he stretched, placing his glass on the bar behind him. He watched James watch him and smiled. “I’m pretty easy.”

James allowed himself one huff of laughter. “You are incorrigible.”

“Why, thank you.” Qrow swept into a mock bow. “So, your place or mine?”

James’ rooms were as fine as any visiting dignitary could want. Qrow had expected this, of course, even looked forward to it. He barely kept a livable space at Beacon while he visited and James damn well knew it, so offering it up had been more of a formality than anything else. James liked to have  _ options, _ Qrow knew from experience. Options meant choosing, and choosing meant control.

And oh, did James like control. Qrow could only hope that extended beyond his political life.

“Ozpin isn’t putting you up to this, is he?” James asked after he closed the door behind them and checked its locks, twice, as if someone was going to come and interrupt one of the most powerful people in Atlas in the middle of the night for anything less than the world ending.

Qrow rolled his eyes. “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be. You do  _ want _ me here, right Jimmy?”

“Yes.” James turned from the door to look directly at him and there was a kind of want in his eyes that made Qrow shiver. He had thought he might have to work a bit harder to break through the walls James put up between himself and others, but it seemed like they were coming down on their own. Just a bit more of a push, maybe.

“Well, I’m here,” Qrow said as he began to unbutton his shirt. James’ eyes followed his hands, and Qrow saw him swallow. “Usually people like to start by actually touching each other.”

James almost smiled. “I imagine I’m also overdressed for the occasion.” He began disrobing as well, carefully draping each item over a chair or on a designated hook. Qrow tossed his own into a corner and stood next to the bed, waiting for him.

Qrow admired the way the room lights reflected off James’ metal right half as he walked over. He’d never heard how it happened, and James didn’t seem to want to explain. Qrow didn’t really give a shit and learned to favor tapping James’ left shoulder in passing if he wanted to bother him. James tentatively brought both hands up to wrap around Qrow, and Qrow closed the distance to kiss him.

_ There. _ Once Qrow initiated, James kissed like a man starved for it, his hands pulling Qrow in and gripping tight like if he let go, Qrow might disappear. His left hand held Qrow like any lover might but his right pressed into Qrow’s upper arm hard enough to bruise, hard enough to make Qrow moan, his lips parting for long enough that James’ tongue could lick into his mouth.

James made a promising sound, low and rumbling at the back of his throat. His hands slid over Qrow’s back, still forceful in a way that Qrow couldn’t get enough of. James was hard against his hip as they rocked together, eventually pressing so far into Qrow’s space that he tumbled backwards onto the bed.

Qrow was not a small person, by any means. Lanky, perhaps, but not small. He towered over most of the people he met, even hunched over as he often was. James, though, James was both taller and broader, and Qrow had never been more aware of that fact than with James’s shoulders bracketing his body. Through the haze of alcohol and lust, it almost felt  _ protective, _ but there was no need to examine that too closely. That wasn’t what Qrow was here for, he reminded himself.

“Seems like you’ve remembered the idea,” Qrow gasped when James moved from his mouth to his neck and his chest, sucking marks into his skin like Qrow had hoped he would. The brief sparks of pain sharpened his awareness of James' mouth on his neck, James’ hands on his hips sliding up under his shoulders to toss him further onto the bed like he weighed nothing.

James hummed and propped himself on his hands above Qrow. “I do think it’s coming back to me now, yes.”

Qrow didn’t have time to make a joke before cool fingers wrapped around his cock and he threw his head back with a moan. His hands came up towards his shoulders to twist into the sheets. James’ left hand came to rest on one of Qrow’s wrists, not painfully but with enough weight behind it that Qrow got the picture. He left his hands where they were.

James worked him roughly for a minute before he glanced at the bedside table and leaned away. Qrow whined as he took his hand off Qrow’s cock. James returned shortly, pouring something slightly viscous into his hand from a bottle.

Qrow laughed, but his voice didn’t sound quite right even to him, the desperate  _ want _ in his tone giving him away. “Ready for anything, huh, James?”

“Preparation is key,” James replied, but his voice was rough. Qrow was thrilled to be the cause of it. “Better to have and not need than the reverse.”

Qrow couldn’t really argue. He didn’t actually feel up to saying much of anything, as James’ hand slid from his cock to his balls to the skin behind them and pressed a finger into him without preamble.

The feeling of metal was new, but the stretch was familiar and more than welcome. James was rough, just how Qrow wanted it, pressing deeper until Qrow squirmed. He could feel himself winding tighter and tighter, toes and fingers curling and flexing in the sheets.

“Breathe, Qrow.”

Qrow did, on reflex, and fully filled his lungs in a way he hadn’t realized he’d stopped doing. James, because he was a bastard like that, took that moment to slip a second finger in with the first. Qrow shouted before trailing off in a frankly embarrassing noise he tried to muffle in the pillows.

James seemed to take this as a personal offense. His next exhale was forced, and on his next thrust in he curled his fingers and pressed—

The pillows weren’t really enough to stifle Qrow’s next moan.

“I suppose your motives weren’t entirely altruistic,” James drawled almost casually. “Were they, Qrow?”

Tch. Altruistic. Like Qrow had ever been altruistic in his  _ life. _ Like he’d looked at James in council meetings and thought, now there’s a man who could use a good lay and I’m just enough of a good person to fall on that proverbial sword, if you will. Qrow giggled at his own joke.

A particularly hard thrust of James’s fingers had Qrow breaking off into another noise, something high and wanting. “I asked a question, Qrow.”

“Yeah?” Qrow tried to keep his voice as level as possible. It might have even worked. “And how’s that going for you?”

Another thrust. Qrow keened.

“Quite well. The answer seems evident. But I’d like to hear you say it.”

“Ha,” Qrow laughed breathlessly. “Like hearing about yourself that much, Jimmy? Want me to tell you I don’t listen in council meetings because I’m so distracted by your eyes? Or would you prefer I say it was your big hands?” Or both, which was closer to truthful, but James didn’t need to know that.

Something about that made James falter in his rhythm for a split second, hardly noticeable unless you were trained to notice the subtle signs in people. But Qrow was, and he noticed. “Either works,” James replied calmly, no hitch in his voice. “Though I suspect you’re more fond of the latter.” He curled his fingers again.

_ “Fuck! _ James if you keep that up—”

“Go on, then.”

“Oh,  _ fuck you—” _ Qrow held it off for as long as he could, riding the edge of climax until it overtook his senses, until the steady motion of James’ fingers stilled inside him and withdrew. He was sweaty, sticky, and had only barely gotten James out of his pants. He closed his eyes and sighed. Well, it seemed like James was having fun, at least.

“I hope you’re not falling asleep on me already.” Something soft dabbed at his stomach. He looked down and yes, James was cleaning come off of him with a fucking  _ monogrammed _ handkerchief. It was almost tender, which was not at all the point here.

“Hope you’re not cleaning up ‘cause we’re done here,” Qrow shot back.

James’ chest shook with silent laughter. “I take it you want to continue?”

“I’ll take anything you’ve got, Jimmy.”

James’ smile dropped at that, replaced by something more intense, entirely focused on Qrow in a way that held him on a knife’s edge. He tossed the handkerchief aside and wrapped one arm under Qrow’s back to lever him up to a sitting position, his legs still wrapped around James’. His other hand slid into Qrow’s hair and gripped it firmly. James’s lips brushed over Qrow’s neck, just under his ear, slow and steady and somehow all the more dangerous for it.

He could feel James’ voice rumble low in his throat. It was barely audible and yet wasn’t a whisper. James had a voice that could carry across battlefields without needing to raise it. “Are you sure about that, Qrow?”

Qrow, on the other hand, had a voice that was immune to that kind of grandstanding. “Fuck me and find out,  _ sir.” _

“Hm.” The hand in his hair tightened, and that was all the warning Qrow got before James’ metal hand reached under his ass to pull him  _ up, _ into James’ lap and onto—

At some point more lube had made it somewhere useful, which was good because Qrow didn’t have enough use of his legs right now to go slow, and James had taken his challenge to heart. He lowered Qrow onto his cock with a bit more force than Qrow expected, but no less than he had hoped for.

“Fuck!” he shouted again, and felt James’ lips on his neck curl into a smile. But instead of the bite he expected, James pressed soothing kisses into his skin, like, like they were lovers or something, gentle caresses that hurt to even  _ think _ about.

Qrow leaned forward until his teeth were in range of James’ neck and bit down. James gasped and his hips jerked  _ up _ and the shock of it made Qrow scramble at James’ back, nails digging into flesh and scraping against metal.

When his breath came back, he hissed into James’ ear. “Like you  _ mean _ it, James.”

James tipped him onto the bed and showed him.

_ Finally. _ James fucked like that first kiss, like he was ravenous, like he  _ needed _ this, and Qrow knew he’d been right. He couldn’t have James, but he could have this, one night—maybe even a few—with James buried to the hilt inside him, James’ hands wrapped around Qrow’s wrists, possessive and strong. It filled an ache in Qrow’s body, his soul, his hea—his body, most importantly, because that’s what this was. Stress relief. Pleasure, overwhelming everything else.

James came with a groan, pressing himself so close to Qrow that they slid up the bed a touch. And then a moment later, as if James could truly never turn off his brain, a hand reached between them to stroke Qrow off as well. It was brutally perfect, rough but not rushed, and Qrow’s second orgasm of the night nearly caught him by surprise.

He let them both bask in it for about a minute before he nudged the back of James’ leg with his heel. “Heavy, James.”

“Ah. Right.” James’ weight withdrew, and from somewhere in the room he produced another handkerchief, which solved about half of Qrow’s uh, situation.

“You have a shower or something?”

James gestured to an unobtrusive door and let his arm drop to the bed. Qrow went, and basked in the hot spray for as long as he could. Ozpin spared no expense in council quarters, of course. So when he felt like he’d made enough of a dent in Ozpin’s hot water supply, he dried off and snuck through the door. As he’d hoped, James was dozing. He looked relaxed, almost happy. Good. Qrow gathered his clothes from the floor and headed for the window.

“…leaving?” James said sleepily. His voice was soft, James was  _ never _ soft.

“Yeah, Jim,” Qrow chuckled quietly. “Can’t be too careful. Like you said, wouldn’t do any good for your reputation. But let me know if you want a round two sometime. I’ll be around.”

He pushed the window open just enough, and a crow flew away from James’ quarters, silent and unseen.

**Author's Note:**

> \- V3 Qrow has a lot of “fuck around and find out” energy and while I am all here for the Qrow Character Development I also enjoyed the parts where he was an absolute menace all the time, hence this  
> \- I feel like I write approximately the same sex scene over and over again but fuck it, I like it  
> \- I'm [PidgeonPostal](https://pidgeonpostal.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, feel free to come say hi! Always delighted to talk about RWBY.  
> \- I've been working on this for as long as I've been working on Heartless but also, I'm well aware that I'm posting it while V8 is actively being released. So uh, yeah depending on how all that shakes out, sorry.


End file.
